Furnish proof of criminals operating from jails: SC
Pappu Yadav case
New Delhi, January 22
The Supreme Court has sought convincing material to show that the kidnappers in Bihar has its links with the jailed criminals, operating from the “comforts” of various prisons in the state with impunity even as the abduction of a school boy from Patna yesterday has sent shock waves across the country.

PM assures to remove all growth
barriers
New Delhi, January 22
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said a paradigm shift was needed to achieve a high growth and said a national knowledge commission will be set up to identify priority areas.

President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam greets Gursharan Kaur as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh looks on during the “At Home” at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Saturday.
— PTI photo

Schoolchildren protest against
kidnapping
Patna, January 22
In a novel way to protest the kidnapping of their fellow pupil Kislay Komal, hundreds of schoolchildren across the state capital today went without their tiffin and held demonstrations in front of their institutions seeking his immediate release.

Pak N-scientist wants CBMs to avert tension
Mumbai, January 22
An eminent nuclear scientist from Pakistan on a visit here has called upon the two countries to begin talks on reducing nuclear fissile material as part of confidence building measures.
“Why cannot both the countries take an initiative to stop building fissile materials,” Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy asked at a function here today.”

Centre confused over Kashmir issue:
BJP
New Delhi, January 22
The BJP has accused the UPA government of being “totally confused” on the Kashmir issue and on how to negotiate with Pakistan, stating that the reduction of forces along the Line of Control (LoC) has resulted in increase in terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

Rajasthan protest against Punjab on refinery issue
Jaipur, January 22
Protesting strongly against the decision of setting up of a refinery reportedly at Bathinda, in Punjab, the Rajasthan Government has cautioned the Centre against it, and has demanded that the refinery be set-up in Rajasthan where the oil reserves were found.

Chautala’s brother joins Congress
New Delhi, January 22
Mr Ranjit Singh, younger brother of Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, joined the Congress party today. He was in the BJP till recently.

Kashmiri Pandits meet Shivraj Patil
New Delhi, January 22
Peeved at the deletion of names of Kashmiri Pandits from electoral rolls in the valley ahead of civic poll, a delegation from the community today met Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and complained against the same.

Ruskin Bond nominated for Astrid Award
Mussoorie, January 22
One of the most prolific of children’s writers Ruskin Bond has been nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award this year. The only Indian author to figure among the 87 nominees from 33 countries, Bond received an official letter from the Swedish Government informing him about the nomination, this week.

Pahalgam bypoll on Feb 24
New Delhi, January 22
The Election Commission has announced that the byelection to Pahalgam Assembly seat would be held on February 24.
The seat had fallen vacant following the election of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to the Legislative Council of the state.

Uma Bharti hospitalised
New Delhi, January 22
Star campaigner for the BJP in Bihar and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP firebrand leader Uma Bharati was today admitted to Apollo Hospital following complications relating to high blood pressure.

New Delhi, January 22
The Supreme Court has sought convincing material to show that the kidnappers in Bihar has its links with the jailed criminals, operating from the “comforts” of various prisons in the state with impunity even as the abduction of a school boy from Patna yesterday has sent shock waves across the country.

“Produce material to show that the criminals are operating from the jail. It is a serious matter if the organised crimes are going on inside the jails,” Mr Justice N. Santhosh Hegde and Mr Justice S.B. Sinha told counsel for the brother of slain CPM MLA Ajit Sarkar in whose murder case imprisoned RJD MP Rajesh Ranjan, alias Pappu Yadav is a key accused.

Senior advocate P.S. Mishra, appearing for Kalyan Sarkar, the brother of slain MLA, during argument earlier this week on transferring of Pappu Yadav to some other state for allegedly violating prison norms time and again, raised the issue of “criminals controlling the crimes from jails in Bihar and most of the kidnapping being planned there.”

“The criminals operating from the jails do not only pose a threat to the society but also is a serious challenge to the authority of the state,” he said adding that he could produce substantial material to prove that “hardened criminals are controlling crimes from jails in Bihar.”

When the court reminded him that it could only intervene in the matter within the parameters of the law, Mr Mishra said under Article 141 of the Constitution, the apex court had been given enough powers to even lay down laws if any statute on any subject was found to be inadequate.

Citing the example of the Supreme Court laying down a serious of guidelines on sexual harassment to be followed as a law of the land in the famous Vishaka case, Mr Mishra said when the state machinery had been “rendered defunct”, the court was the only forum left for the citizen where they could seek protection.

When Bihar Government counsel B.B. Singh tried to point out that the kidnapping was a nation-wide phenomena, Mr Mishra said he would be more happy if the court issue notices to all the states and seek reports from them.

Mr Mishra said he would place the required data about it on February 1, the next date of hearing, when the court would take up the issue of Pappu Yadav’s transfer.

New Delhi, January 22
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said a paradigm shift was needed to achieve a high growth and said a national knowledge commission will be set up to identify priority areas.

"We have decided to set up a national knowledge commission that will indentify priority areas which require urgent national attention. India needs knowledge revolution at all levels of knowledge and not just at the top of the pyramid", Dr Manmohan Singh said while inaugurating a summit of Indian CEOs organised by FICCI, the CII and SCOPE. He said that India must "think big and think boldly".

Assuring that the government "will remove all barriers to growth and encourage Indian companies to become globally competitive", Dr Manmohan Singh said the government attaches the "greatest importance to strengthening the capabilities of our firms, of our managers and of our skilled workers to that our firms can become truly globally competitive".

He said it was instructive to note that while as individuals Indians do well in interntional competitions, "we are not as yet equally competitive in groups, as organisation".

Assuring to give more autonomy to public sector undertakings, he said, "We must strengthen their hands so that they can provide effective leadership and manage public resources more efficiently".

The government has made a clear commitment to empowering PSEs and their managements. "We have already given our commitment to help in the globalisation of our navratnas, especially of firms in strategic sectors like energy. Both the navratnas and other PSEs require competent managerial leadership," he said.

Both Navaratnas and other PSUs require competent management and leadership and they need this to survive the competition.

He said the T. K. A. Nair committee had made several suggestions for toning up the management of PSUs. "I hope all these recommendations will be implemented with speed", he added.

New Delhi, January 22
Hardline Akali leader Simranjit Singh Mann today came in support of RJD Chief and Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav for making Godhra carnage report a poll issue saying “politically-sponsored genocides, rapes and tortures must become election issues.”

In a memorandum to Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishna Murthy here, Mr Mann said he would oppose any restrictions on Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav from publicly discussing the Justice U C Banerjee report on the Godhra train fire.

“Tomorrow orders will go out that no politician can talk of the 1984 anti-Sikh massacre but Article 19 of the Constitution gives every person the unfettered right to free speech,” the President of SAD (Amritsar), said in his three-page memorandum.

Earlier in the day, the Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishna Murthy said that the EC did not oppose “debating or discussing” the Banerjee report but would act tough if anybody tried to communalise electoral politics.

New Delhi, January 22
The Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) President, Mr Simranjit Singh Mann, today accused the National Commission for Minorities
(NCM) chief Tarlochan Singh of electioneering for Haryana’s Indian National Lok Dal and moved the Election Commission in this regard.

Hyderabad, January 22
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the coalition partner in the Congress government, has close links with the Maoist groups, according to the Intelligence Department of the state police.

The politically sensitive revelation caused further dent in the already fragile relations of the regional party, fighting for a separate Telangana state, with the Congress. Significantly, the document detailing the nexus between TRS and Naxals was handed over to Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy on Friday, a day after a delegation of TRS ministers and MLAs submitted a memorandum to Mr Reddy expressing displeasure over the encounter killings and demanding resumption of talks with militant outfits.

The report said, as many as 40 TRS party leaders and senior functionaries have close contacts with the armed guerillas of the CPI (Maoist) Party, which unilaterally pulled out of the dialogue process that the Congress-TRS government initiated last October.

Another 22 political activists sympathetic to the Maoists belonged to other mainstream parties including the TDP, the Congress and the CPI (New Democracy), the report said.

An MLA from Warangal district, party state vice-president, district party secretaries of Warangal and Adilabad and a host of elected representatives of local bodies of the TRS are actively associated with the Maoist groups.

DGP Swaranjit Sen and Intelligence Chief Aravinda Rao are learnt to have told Mr Reddy, who is increasingly getting isolated politically for his tough stand against Naxals carrying arms.

The peace talks, widely expected to bring a lasting solution to the bloodshed in Telangana and other backward regions of the state, broke down last Monday following what Naxal leaders called as “betrayal” of the Reddy government in violating ceasefire agreement and letting loose the police to kill Maoist squad members.

The TRS leaders suspect the timing of the expose and are mulling over the possibility of withdrawing from the Reddy government. The TRS has two ministers at the Centre and six in the state cabinet. “The Chief Minister, who never liked our presence in the government, seems to be trying to put us on the mat,” a TRS Minister, who did not want to be named, remarked.

Meanwhile, North Telangana Special Zone Committee leader of Maoists Jampanna, in a statement, called on the TRS to snap ties with the Congress government and fight for a separate state with the support of the people.

Patna, January 22
In a novel way to protest the kidnapping of their fellow pupil Kislay Komal, hundreds of schoolchildren across the state capital today went without their tiffin and held demonstrations in front of their institutions seeking his immediate release.

“Hundreds of tiny tots are hungry as they have not brought their tiffins to express solidarity with their fellow student Kislay,” Vinod Singh, who runs an NGO involved in students welfare programmes and is coordinating the protest against Kislay’s abduction told PTI.

“Hamara Kislay wapas karo” (Give us back our Kislay), “Bachchon ka apharan bandh karo” (stop the kidnapping of children), chanted the students holding demonstration in front of the DAV Public School at Walmi, on the outskirts of the capital.

“Kalam is more of a children’s President than a man of science and the students want him to be with them in their hour of crisis,” he added.

Meanwhile, RJD chief Laloo Prasad, who had cold shouldered a group of DPS students who had tried to seek an audience with him yesterday, today met the parents of Kislay, a student of the Delhi Public School who was abducted by unidentified gunmen Wednesday morning.

Kislay’s father K.K. Gupta, an Assistant Sales Tax Commissioner, and his wife met Mr Prasad and Chief Minister Rabri Devi at their one Anne Marg residence.

Emerging from the meeting, Mr Gupta said he was assured by the two that the police was leaving no stone unturned to recover the boy. —
PTI

Mumbai, January 22
An eminent nuclear scientist from Pakistan on a visit here has called upon the two countries to begin talks on reducing nuclear fissile material as part of confidence building measures.
“Why cannot both the countries take an initiative to stop building fissile materials,” Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy asked at a function here today.”

It is high time both India and Pakistan should show the world how they could play an important role in building-confidence between the two nations and could become a role model,” Hoodbhoy said.

New Delhi, January 22
The BJP has accused the UPA government of being “totally confused” on the Kashmir issue and on how to negotiate with Pakistan, stating that the reduction of forces along the Line of Control (LoC) has resulted in increase in terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

The BJP has also questioned the rationale between the Centre’s decision to set up a committee to hold talks on autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir.

“The successive events in Jammu and Kashmir have proved that the reduction of forces along the LoC has resulted in increase in terrorist activities in the state,” senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Murli Manohar Joshi said.

In an interview to the Organiser, RSS mouthpiece, an advance copy of which is available with The Tribune, Dr Joshi said, “At the time when the UPA government announced troop reduction we had pointed out that this was not going to help in any way and might create problems. People have seen in the last two-three weeks how the attacks have grown even in the Kashmir valley.”

“The security forces were attacked time and again. So this shows that Pakistan has not responded to the gesture of the government,” the BJP leader said, adding that “people are astonished as to what is the objective of this government regarding Kashmir.”

Stating that the UPA government lacked clarity on the Kashmir issue, Dr Joshi said, “Sometimes they say they would talk to various groups.

Jaipur, January 22
Protesting strongly against the decision of setting up of a refinery reportedly at Bathinda, in Punjab, the Rajasthan Government has cautioned the Centre against it, and has demanded that the refinery be set-up in Rajasthan where the oil reserves were found.

Rajasthan Minister of Mines and Petroleum, Mr L.N. Dave, has stated that there is no justification of establishing the proposed refinery in Punjab, which does not possess even a single oil well so far. A 682 km long pipeline was needed to carry oil from as distant as Barmer and adjoining areas to Punjab, he observed.

The Raje government in a communication addressed to all MPs from the state has emphasised to impress upon the Union Government to change its decision, as it was highly detrimental to the interests of Rajasthan.

New Delhi, January 22
Mr Ranjit Singh, younger brother of Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, joined the Congress party today. He was in the BJP till recently.

He was formally admitted into the party after he met Congress president Sonia Gandhi. His entry into the party had been on the cards for some time as he had been in constant touch with Mr Janardan Dwivedi, AIUCC general secretary and in charge of Haryana.

New Delhi, January 22
Peeved at the deletion of names of Kashmiri Pandits from electoral rolls in the valley ahead of civic poll, a delegation from the community today met Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and complained against the same.

A delegation of Kashmiri Samiti, led by its President Sunil Shakdher, demanded centrally-administered separate homeland for the community in Kashmir and ruled out the return of displaced people in the prevailing conditions. —
PTI

Mussoorie, January 22
One of the most prolific of children’s writers Ruskin Bond has been nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award this year. The only Indian author to figure among the 87 nominees from 33 countries, Bond received an official letter from the Swedish Government informing him about the nomination, this week.

Bond said he was in the middle of his afternoon siesta on a snow-lashed day when the postman brought the news of the nomination in through a ‘rather crumpled letter’. He was privileged and honoured to be a part of 87 talented and distinguished writers and illustrators, he said. After over half a century of writing and some 80 books down the line, humbled by the nomination, Bond said, Now you mustn’t assume that I would win the prize but if I am lucky enough to win I will use a part of it to start a similar award for the Indian children’s writers”.

A runner up for the Hans Anderson Award a few years ago, Ruskin Bond was in Delhi recently for the book release of his biography titled “Our Enduring Bond” written by Ganesh Saili.

New Delhi, January 22
The Election Commission has announced that the byelection to Pahalgam Assembly seat would be held on February 24.
The seat had fallen vacant following the election of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to the Legislative Council of the state.

The poll panel said the notification for the election would be issued on February 7 and the last date for filing nominations would be February 14.

New Delhi, January 22
Star campaigner for the BJP in Bihar and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP firebrand leader Uma Bharati was today admitted to Apollo Hospital following complications relating to high blood pressure.

She was immediately taken to Apollo Hospital where she was diagnosed of having high blood pressure. Hospital sources confirmed that Ms Bharati had been admitted to the hospital today and advised to take rest by the doctors.

BRIEFLY

Call to boycott Republic Day
ITANAGAR: Theoutlawed National Liberation Front of Arunachal (NLFA) has called upon the people to boycott the forthcoming Republic Day celebration in the state. NLFA Commander-in-Chief K. Tara said the boycott call was given in protest against the "failure" of the Central as well as the state governments to solve various burning problems of the state, particularly the refugee imbroglio. —UNI

16 CPI-ML Naxalites held
BETTIAH: Sixteen CPI-ML (Liberation) Naxalites were arrested and several firearms, including semi-automatic rifles, were recovered from them in Bihar's West Champaran district on Saturday, Police Superintendent M.R. Naik said. Acting on a tip-off, a police team raided Badnihar village under the Sikarpur police station in the morning on Saturday and nabbed the Naxalites, Mr Nair said.—
PTI